I never gave up
by mightjustbe
Summary: CBPC March The Notebook. Please R and R


The notebook:

AN: This is my first CBPC, and it was harder than I thought to choose a movie's dialogue for them. There is a little bit of background to understanding this, that's mentioned in the story but only briefly: Booth gets called back to serve in the war, and is shipped to Iraq for a year and a half. Everything else is pretty much covered. Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

"You're different." Temperance Brennan whispered, studying the grooves of his face.

"What do you mean?" He asked quietly, fidgeting the entire time.

"Just the way you look. Everything." She smiled at him, and he returned the smile. It was the first smile she'd seen on his face since he'd gotten back. He didn't even smile when he saw they were all there, in the airport, waiting for him.

"You look different too, but in a good way." He winced. It sounded... awkward. The time and the distance had messed it up. Maybe he was making it that way, subconsciously attacking this out of the bitterness he felt of 365 letters left unanswered.

"You know, you're kinda the same though." She watched as the smile finally reached his eyes, and she felt her heart swell. God, she had missed him. She worried everyday that he wouldn't return. She remembered his promise as they stood on the army base, trying not to cry as she told him goodbye, and he whispered that he would never abandon her, never.

"Yeah?"

She nodded, "Yeah." She paused, looking out the window at the scenery as they drove back to his new place. The place out in the middle of nowhere practically, the place he'd always dreamt about having for himself and Parker. "And you really did it"

"What?" He was confused. They'd been silent for a few minutes, both lost in their thoughts. He was wondering the best way to bring up the fact that she hadn't cared enough to respond to any of his letters.

"Everything. The house... it's beautiful, What you did." She glanced over at him, happy to see the swell of pride on his face. She could imagine him, out under the hot sun as he remodeled the outside of the huge farmhouse he'd bought the day he'd returned from the war. He'd needed something easier to fix than himself...

"Well, I promised you I would." He thought back to that day he'd told her about his plan. It was just a dream, a silly dream. But she smiled that smile of hers, and he was a goner. She made him swear he'd do it, told him he had to do something for himself one day, and she knew how much he hated to break a promise he made to her.

"Great." Brennan muttered, the rain pouring down as they stepped out of the car.

"We got to go," He called over the roll of thunder, grabbing her hand and rushing to the house, almost fifty feet away.

She paused, pulling her hand from his, "Booth! Why didn't you write me?" She felt her eyes well, but she fought to keep her composure. She wouldn't cry. Maybe he'd tell her that it was because it was a war, that's why he didn't write. That he was in danger every second of every day, and it was too hard to tell her that. She hoped he wouldn't say it was because he didn't care enough to bother.

He looked at her, "What"

"It wasn't over for me." The friendship, the partnership, all of it. It hadn't been over! she thought, her hands curled into tiny fists, the rain soaking her. "I waited for you for over a year!" Her voice broke from the sadness and the anger, "And now it's too late!"

"I wrote you 365 letters." he took a few steps towards her, the rain no longer bothering him, "I wrote you every day for a year." He stared at her in disbelief. She hadn't gotten them? So that was why she didn't answer?

"You wrote me?" Her heart swelled with hope and happiness. He did care. He didn't want to abandon her. He didn't mean to distance them. But... if he wrote, where were the letters? She thought back to Angela, who had watched her cry non-stop for a month with worry. Angela, who got her mail for her on a daily basis. Angela, her best friend, trying to protect her.

"Yes... It wasn't over. It still isn't over." He flew to her, his arms tangled into her hair as she sobbed in his arms. He waited until she calmed a little, finally pulling back and doing the only thing he'd truly wanted to do since the day he met her. He kissed her.

* * *

AN: Okay, there is one part of the dialogue I had to change--Where, in the movie, Allie says she waited 7 years, I made into "over a year". Because There is no way that Booth wouldn't come to her. It just wouldn't happen. But every other word is directly from THE NOTEBOOK, as the rules state. Hope you enjoyed it!!


End file.
